Amendment 86: Require Commission and Supreme Court Approval for Mid-Decade Congressional Redistricting Initiative

Amendment 86 addresses the circumstances under which congressional districts can be redrawn outside the normal redistricting process.

Why Vote YES?

Congressional districts should not become political footballs that can be manipulated whenever political control changes.

Colorado already has a constitutional redistricting process. Changing congressional districts in the middle of a decade should require a compelling reason rather than becoming a tool for whichever political party temporarily controls state government.

Stable districts provide voters with greater certainty and reduce the temptation for politicians to manipulate district boundaries for partisan advantage.

This is fundamentally a matter of protecting voters from political gamesmanship.

Position: Congressional districts should not be casually redrawn in the middle of the decade for partisan purposes. Vote YES.

Would prohibit congressional redistricting unless approved by the Congressional Redistricting Commission and the Supreme Court.

In the last year, we’ve seen some of our neighboring states change their congressional districts to give one political party more power. Now a special interest group is trying to create confusion in Colorado. Amendment 86 is intended to restrict mid-decade redistricting. We recommend voting NO on this amendment. - Amendment 86 removes and reenacts the congressional redistricting laws that we voted on in 2018, with one change. It requires that any mid-decade changes are approved by our independent Congressional Redistricting Commission and the Colorado Supreme Court. - Amendment 86 ignores that the Colorado Supreme Court has ruled against mid-decade redistricting in 2003 to protect voters’ rights. So, we already have a court ruling against mid-decade changes that the special interest group funding this amendment wants to replace. - Amendment 86 seeks to reduce Colorado’s voice at the federal level by limiting our ability to respond to bad-faith activities by other states. The current constitution already provides fair and non-partisan redistricting every 10 years if the census reveals the need for change. This is a wasteful effort meant to confuse us.